(a)
That the minutes of 28 September 2016, 20 January and 9 February
2017 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman;
and

(b)
That subject to the amendment, the minutes of 30 November 2016 be
approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Minutes:

The minutes of the budget meetings held on
28 September 2016, 30 November 2016 and 20 January
2017 were received, together with the minutes of 9 February
2017.

Minutes of 30 November 2016

As a point of accuracy, Councillor Richard
Jones advised that Councillor Peter Curtis had been elected as
Chair of the meeting.

Minutes of 20 January 2017

Councillor Jones explained that he had been
asked to forward his list of 21 questions to the Chief
Executive for a response after the meeting. He said that where time did not allow for a Member
to share such a number of questions in advance of a meeting, they
should be entitled to raise them at the meeting without
interruption by other Members. The
Chairman supported this view.
Councillor Jones also felt that the Overview & Scrutiny process
was more effective when responses given outside meetings were
circulated to the full Committee.

The Democratic Services Manager explained
his approach to share any responses with the Committee which had
been raised by individual Members.

RESOLVED:

(a)
That the minutes of 28 September 2016, 20 January and 9 February
2017 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman;
and

(b)
That subject to the amendment, the minutes of 30 November 2016 be
approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

That Detective Constable Nicholas Hawe be
thanked for his attendance and presentation.

Minutes:

The
Chairman welcomed Detective Constable (DC) Nicholas Hawe to the meeting to share an overview of the
work of the North Wales Cybercrime Unit. The two main types of cybercrime were:

·‘CEO fraud’ where an attacker was able
to spoof a message from a senior officer to trick others at the
same organisation into wiring funds to a fraudulent
account.

·‘Ransomware’ (or crypto locker)
involving the covert installation of computer malware onto a
victim’s device and demand a ransom (via bitcoin payments)
from the victim for the decryption of their data.

DC
Hawe highlighted the importance of
safeguarding against these increasing cyber threats and said that
80% of cases were avoidable by taking simple
precautions. A further risk to
organisations was the introduction of new Data Protection
regulations from May 2018 on the disclosure of breaches to data
security. Whilst many larger
organisations were adopting a proactive stance to safeguarding
against these risks, smaller businesses and members of the public
remained the most vulnerable. The
recommended approach was for businesses to identify critical data
as part of a security plan and regularly backup files away from the
network and carry out testing. Any
anti-virus software should be kept updated and the workforce
trained to raise awareness of how to deal with suspicious
emails. Anti-ransom software could
offer another layer of protection but there were no failsafe
guarantees. Businesses could opt to
purchase accreditation of the ‘Cyber Essentials’
scheme, which was endorsed by the UK Government and offered basic
controls to mitigate the risk of internet-based threats.

In
the event of a computer becoming infected, the advice was to remain
calm and take steps to isolate the infection from the
network. Cases should be reported to
the Cybercrime team and the ‘Action Fraud’ centre to
establish if the relevant decryption keys were
recorded. The website
‘nomoreransom.org’ also held a list of regularly
updated decryption keys.

The
Chairman gave an example of a member of the public who had been the
victim of ransomware, demonstrating that individuals were at risk
as well as businesses. He also
commented on the danger of using scanned signatures.

To
reassure Members, the Chief Executive said that the Council’s
IT expertise and infrastructure reduced the level of
risk. Information was shared with the
workforce on the need for individual vigilance to help reduce the
amount of phishing emails which occasionally filtered through the
system.

In
response to comments from Councillors Marion Bateman and Ian Smith,
a cautious approach was recommended when accessing seemingly
genuine websites and when sharing personal information on social
media.

DC
Hawe responded to Councillor Paul
Shotton’s query on support for
schools and the all-Wales approach through the
‘schoolbeat.org’ programme.
He spoke about the team’s links with the regional and
national teams but highlighted the under-reporting of cases,
particularly by businesses, as a risk area. He agreed to a request to give the presentation to
the Deeside Forum.

That the Committee welcomes the
Customer Service Strategy and that the Cabinet be informed
accordingly.

Minutes:

The
Service Manager (Customer Support) presented the Customer Service
Strategy for 2017-22 and sought views prior to consideration by
Cabinet. The strategy focussed on
transforming customer transactions through the delivery of services
in the most modern and efficient way, and was split into three
workstreams reflecting the main customer access
channels.

Councillor Billy Mullin thanked the officer team for their work
in refreshing the strategy which would be monitored and reviewed by
a working group.

The
Chief Executive said that the strategy was underpinned by the core
Customer Service standards and would help to reinforce consistency
on those commitments.

The
Chairman pointed out that the Customer Service Policy had not been
appended to the strategy, as had been indicated, and that two
versions of the policy were available on the website. He said that the Council’s standard to
respond to digital correspondence within 10 working days differed
from his own experience and that a log was kept by Member Services
to record Members’ written enquiries sent to
officers.

The
Customer Service & Registration Manager advised that enquiries
submitted through the website, rather than individual officer email
addresses, was the preferred method as these were subject to
performance monitoring. She would
ensure that the updated policy was shown on the website and liaise
with Member Services on their method of recording
enquiries. It was also explained that
the new strategy complemented the Customer Service Policy which
remained unchanged.

Councillor Richard Jones said that customers choosing telephone
contact via Customer Services should be given the full name of the
officer to enable any follow-up. He was
given assurance that this was not required as information on each
call was logged.

In
supporting the strategy, Councillor Nigel Steele-Mortimer agreed
that more work was needed, particularly on response
times. The Chief Executive acknowledged
that further improvements were required to achieve more consistency
on standards. He went on to refer to
work which was ongoing and spoke about the expectation on
individuals to provide full explanations on the process involved in
responding to more complex enquiries.
He welcomed Members’ feedback on any areas of concern and
suggested that the Committee receive a progress report on the
strategy, including reporting frequency of data, six months into
the new municipal year.

Councillor Paul Shotton said that Members making enquiries on
behalf of residents should be provided with a copy of the response
by email. He went on to thank the
Flintshire Connects team in Connah’s Quay.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee welcomes the
Customer Service Strategy and that the Cabinet be informed
accordingly.

That subject to the removal of
the words ‘household and business’ from the third Green
Council Objective, the draft set of Well-being Objectives be
supported and the Cabinet informed accordingly.

Minutes:

The
Chief Executive presented the proposed Well-being Objectives for
consideration prior to submitting for Cabinet approval. The Committee’s views were sought on the
Objectives, which aligned to the priorities of the Improvement
Plan, to enable publication by the statutory deadline and review by
the new administration.

Councillor Aaron Shotton referred to the timing of the report
and the statutory requirement to publish the Objectives before
31 March 2017.

Councillor Richard Jones referred to the objective to maximise
recovery and recycling of household and business waste, pointing
out that most businesses used private companies. The Chief Executive acknowledged this point and
said that the Council could have some degree of influence with no
direct control.

The
Committee indicated support for the Objectives with the change
suggested by Councillor Jones.

RESOLVED:

That subject to the removal of
the words ‘household and business’ from the third Green
Council Objective, the draft set of Well-being Objectives be
supported and the Cabinet informed accordingly.

The
Chief Executive presented the update report to consider progress
towards the delivery of the impacts set out in the 2016/17
Improvement Plan, focussing on the areas of under-performance
relevant to the Committee during Quarter 3. An overall positive position was reported on risk
management and performance indicators.

That the Committee notes the
Council’s response to the WAO proposal for improvement of the
Council’s arrangements for financial savings
planning.

Minutes:

The
Chief Executive introduced a report to receive and endorse the
findings of the Wales Audit Office (WAO) review on financial
resilience carried out in 2016. In line
with the agreed protocol, comments from this Committee and the
Audit Committee would be reported to Cabinet.

The
WAO report concluded that ‘the Council has a sound financial
planning framework and it continues to strengthen its financial
planning to better support future financial
resilience’. There was one
proposal for improvement to which the Council had
responded. The findings for all 22
Welsh councils would be captured in a national summary report by
WAO.

The
Chief Executive spoke about the benefits of the phased budget
process at an earlier stage and the intention to recommend a target
of achieving a minimum of 95% of efficiency targets in year for
2017/18. The Council’s rigorous
approach to monitoring the achievement of efficiencies had been
recognised by WAO.

Councillor Aaron Shotton spoke about the importance of the new
Council continuing to make the case for financial support from
Welsh Government. He welcomed
recognition by WAO of the real-term reduction of 10.1% funding per
head in Flintshire since 2013-14.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee notes the
Council’s response to the WAO proposal for improvement of the
Council’s arrangements for financial savings
planning.

That the Committee approves the Revenue Budget
Monitoring 2016/17 (Month 10) report and confirms that there are no
specific issues to be brought to the attention of the Cabinet.

Minutes:

The
Corporate Finance Manager introduced a report on the revenue budget
monitoring position for 2016/17 as at Month 10 for the Council Fund
and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) prior to consideration by
Cabinet.

On
the Council Fund, the net in-year position comprised of an
operating deficit of £0.705m which was a decrease from the
Month 9 position. As reported
previously, the change in Minimum Revenue Provision accounting
policy had eliminated the in-year operating deficit, leaving
projected net spend £2.181m lower than budget.

Significant budget changes made since the last report were
explained and included the transfer of efficiency savings between
portfolios and central and corporate, and also the virement previously approved for Social
Services.

A
slight improvement was reported on the programme of efficiencies
with 90% of planned efficiencies expected to be achieved by year
end.

An
update was also given on the income strategy and included
recommendations for the implementation of new sources of income
which would contribute to the efficiency target included in the
budget.

The
projected level of contingency reserve available as at the end of
March 2017 was confirmed as £5.333m with a recommendation in
the report to allocate £0.050m to support initial setup costs
and technical support for the Community Asset Transfer in Holywell
which would help ensure the delivery of the following year’s
budget saving.

On
the HRA, in-year spend was projected to be £0.037m higher
than budget, leaving a year end balance
of £1.061m which was above the recommended minimum level of
3%.

The
Chief Executive reported that disposal of the orphaned industrial
site in Sandycroft was currently
underway which would end this liability for the
Council. He thanked the Committee and
the Chief Officer (Organisational Change) for their input on this
complex project.

In
response to a question from Councillor Richard Jones on the
transfer of rollover amounts to external companies, the Chief
Executive said that this was not the practice and he explained the
arrangements for reserves and balances.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee approves the Revenue Budget
Monitoring 2016/17 (Month 10) report and confirms that there are no
specific issues to be brought to the attention of the Cabinet.